Thursday, July 31, 2014

I
tried to prepare myself for a long day of standing in the hot Cat's
Cradle parking lot by purchasing a chocolate milkshake, and this led to
me arriving at the venue late and only seeing part of Mikal Cronin
and his super-catchy fuzz pop. This might lead the regular person to
exclaim "damn you milkshake!" for making them late, but it wouldn't be
sincere on my part because the milkshake is the true love of my life.
Anyways, I believe all of the songs I did get to hear were from his
excellent Merge record "MCII," and since I didn't miss hearing one of
the best pop songs of the last few years, "Shout It Out," I can't get
too mad about missing part of his set.

I know this will possibly result in my "music fan" card being revoked, but I've never listened to much Bob Mould
or Husker Du. And the thing is, every time I hear a song by either act
I usually enjoy it...just never translated to any prolonged listening
to his/their music. Mould's backing band is the current rhythm section
of Superchunk, Jason Narducy and Jon Wurster, their second and third
times playing the festival respectively. Narducy managed not to make
himself bleed this time, but Wurster did still sweat a shirt shiny. I
didn't know most of what they played but I liked it - the only song I
did recognize was "I Don't Know You Anymore," and I'm told he played a
couple of Husker Du tracks. Also, host Margaret Cho (oh yeah I forgot
to mention she was the MC of the day's festivities) came onstage and
sang a couple of songs with the band - apparently she's a huge fan. She
didn't have a bad voice for a comedian, but maybe not a great voice for
a musician, ha.

Finally, what anyone with good taste had been waiting for, one of the greatest pop bands of all time, Teenage Fanclub.
I was as giddy as one of those crazed One Direction preteen fans, minus
the high-pitched shrieking. I don't think I've ever seen as many
musicians watching another band as I did during this set - a large
selection of most of the acts on the day's bill were posted at the side
of the stage taking it all in. The band might be a little older but
they haven't lost a step musically - everything sounded gorgeous. The
set list, while short, sampled their entire catalog...sure, there was a
ton of things I would have loved to hear like "Star Sign" and "Radio,"
but getting three songs from their perfect record "Songs from Northern
Britain" takes the pain away. And then there was the end of the set,
when they amped up the awesome exponentially - first with "The Concept,"
then "Sparky's Dream," and finally "Everything Flows." It might sound
like an exaggeration but this set alone was worth the price of the
entire four day pass; this kind of happy doesn't come along that often.

After Fanclub I knew I was kinda going to be ruined for any
other live music, but there were still two bands to go. I went inside
the Cradle to have a drink, cool off out of the sun, and try to get my
brain screwed back on straight. When I wandered back outside, Caribou
was partially through their set. I had always thought that this band
was just one guy manipulating shit on his computer, and maybe that is
the case on the recordings - but live it was an actual four piece band
with an exceptionally bad ass drummer. There's nothing I can tell you
about this band or show that you can't read elsewhere with more details,
but I will say if you are like me and wrote these guys off as boring
knob twiddlers, that definitely isn't the case.

Neutral Milk Hotel
were the closer for the night, and for the festival. After plenty of
admonishment not to take any photos or videos or recordings or to look
Jeff Mangum in the eye (that last part may or may not be true), Mangum
took the stage by himself to perform "I Will Bury You in Time," and was
shortly joined by the rest of the band (which could be anywhere from
five to seven members depending on the song they were playing at the
time). There was a couple of horn players (hornsmen? horners?), each
of them with a ton of different instruments from trombones to french
horns to trumpets to...I think a euphonium? Also, at least one of those
hornsmen was the human embodiment of Papa Smurf, in case you were
wondering. There is really no reason to go into what songs the band
played, because it was obviously their two albums they released over 15
years ago. As much as I love their recorded material, the live show was
a bit ramshackle. Maybe it was the mix, maybe it was the musicians,
maybe it was the poor acoustics of an outside show, but whatever it was,
the gig wasn't as good as I had hoped. Not bad by any means,
just...okay I guess. In fact the best material of the night were the
handful of tracks that Mangum played by himself, his voice clear and
unmuddled by the cacophony of sounds coming from the stage. That was
how Neutral Milk Hotel ended the show, the same as how they started -
just the iconic singer and his guitar, closing out a great four days of
music.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Destroyer, Wye Oak, The Mountain Goats, and David Kilgour and the Heavy 8s

Cat's Cradle7/25/2014

After
stuffing myself silly at Carrburritos, I got into the Cradle right at
the end of Imperial Teen's set and caught their final two songs. I've
never been all that excited by these guys, but maybe I was in a good
mood or the songs hit me just right but I liked what I heard - tons of
energy and the crowd seemed way into it, but as per usual I don't have
anything else to say about Imperial Teen.

I got there a little early specifically because I didn't want to miss any of David Kilgour & the Heavy 8s.
To be completely honest I've not listened to his solo work all that
much, but I love his band the Clean so much I felt it imperative I see
him perform live as much as possible, regardless of what songs he might
be playing. Even though I didn't know any of the setlist, I thoroughly
enjoyed the band's set - most notably Kilgour's excellent guitar
playing, which held me transfixed for much of the set. His New Zealand
accent was so thick he jokingly put on a fake British accent to be
understood, but you need no translator to understand good music.

I've never seen a Mountain Goats
show that featured so little banter from frontman John Darnielle - I
guess they took their short time slot to heart and decided to power
through as many songs as possible. They played a lot of crowd favorites
like "San Bernardino," "Amy," "This Year," and what is probably the
band's greatest song, one that had the entire crowd singing along, "No
Children." There was also a cover of the American Music Club song "Who
You Are," a track I had never before heard, but Darnielle and company
really made it their own. Knowing how rabid Mountain Goats fans are,
I'm betting there were folks who attended this show or even this
festival specifically for them - I hope they at least enjoyed the
quality of their offerings since there was a lack of quantity, because
the quality was high.

Wye Oak
held down the penultimate leg of the evening. I've said it elsewhere
but they're really two different bands these days, the former
guitar-based Wye Oak versus the current bass heavy electro-pop Wye Oak.
I really like both versions, though I might give a slight edge to the
older, more rockin' version of the band because that is the one
responsible for their best song "Holy Holy," which they thankfully
played in their set this night. Outside of that track and a couple of
other older ones, Jenn Wasner left her guitar in it's stand and focused
on songs from their new record "Shriek." It's a little bit of a shame
because she is such an excellent guitarist; but it's no surprise that on
the new songs, she dominates the bass just as well. Oh, and that
amazing voice, plus she's incredibly attractive. Honestly it wouldn't
take much cajoling for me to quit my job and travel the world stalking
her professionally (at a respectable distance, of course - I'm no creep;
well, only a slight creep). It's an odd feeling, loving a band's new
direction while simultaneously missing their old sound...usually I hate
when a group changes as drastically as Wye Oak have, but in this rare
case it works.

Destroyer
closed the night, and it was incredible. The last time they rolled
through town in support of "Kaputt," it was like the whole band,
especially frontman Dan Bejar, had downed a fistful of 'ludes before
taking the stage. By comparison this outing was downright ebullient!
Early in the set Bejar exclaimed "Gotta find my tambourine...it's gonna
be worth it," and I knew based on his mood it was going to be a good
night. Including Bejar the band was running at eight members, including
two full-time horn blowers and an organist. Outside of a couple of new
songs (which sounded great), most of the setlist was made from the
albums "Rubies and "Kaputt" - and the best songs off of those albums to
boot. The list included "Savage Night of the Opera," "Chinatown,"
"European Oils," and the closer for the night, the epic "Rubies." There
was still a little time until 2 AM and I was hoping the band would keep
going until closing, but like some crusty old Englishman once told me
we can't always get what we want. I'm pretty sure this gig is going to
lead me down a manic Destroyer listening party for the next few weeks. I
don't see that as a problem.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Night
two of Merge 25 was upon us, and after last night's cushy seated gig it
was time for a long evening of standing on the cement Cat's Cradle
floors. Let's do this.

I got in the club just before the Clientele
got started, and in my usual way wormed my way near the front amid a
sea of photographers and three videographers with serious professional
rigs. Why all three of them were basically filming from the same angle
is beyond me, but they're the pros and I'm sure they know what they're
doing. I wouldn't call myself a superfan, but this was one of the bands
I was most excited about. Why? I couldn't say exactly, but probably
some combination of their somber jazz pop sounding really good to my
ears these days, combined with the fact that I've only seen the band a
couple of times so there was a certain novelty to their performance as
opposed to someone like Superchunk who I've seen tons. Is it weird that
I think of them as a British Sea & Cake? It's not an exact match,
but they're mining the same vein. The band is both fantastically smooth
and smoothly fantastic, and the only thing that would have made it
better is if they had played "Rain." I picked up the recent reissue of
their classic "Suburban Light" when I left the club later that night.

Next up was the Rock*A*Teens.
I'm 98% certain I saw these cats a few times back in the late nineties,
be it opening for someone like Superchunk or at the old Kings or
something along those lines. They never really moved the needle for me
back then, and I was interested to see how I would react to them this go
around. The verdict: while still not my favorite band in the world, I
was definitely feeling it more than in the past. They have a
ramshackle, jangly garage pop vibe to them, a little sloppy but I'm not
sure that is particularly important to a band like this. There were a
number of sound issues, most seemingly from the house and not the band,
but the Rock*A*Teens plowed through without a care in the world. I
might need to go back and revisit their old records now.

Speaking of sound problems, Reigning Sound
also seemed to have no shortage of them. Greg broke a guitar string
early in the set and after changing it he just never seemed to get the
guitar tuned back to his liking. My musically stupid ears couldn't hear
anything wrong, but then again I thought the music sounded fine when he
was just playing five strings before he changed the broken one. The
band just released a new record called "Shattered" and played a number
of tracks off of it, as well as some classics like "Stop and Think It
Over," "Debris," "I'll Cry," and probably the best song they've ever
written "Drowning." Despite the difficulties I very much enjoyed the
show, as I do with any Reigning Sound show. So stoked they're on Merge
now.

Superchunk
closed out the night. I had sorta hoped and/or expected them to play a
"special" set in honor of the anniversary - a complete classic album or
all requests or obscure b-sides or something unusual, but it was just a
regular Chunk show. It might sound like I was disappointed, and maybe I
was a tad, but you can't be that bummed out when one of your all-time
favorite bands is banging out classics like "Skip Steps 1 & 3" and
"What Do I" and "Brand New Love" and "Hyper Enough," paired with great
new jams such as "Low F" and "Digging for Something" and "FOH." At one
point new bassist Jason Narducy got so spazzy he fell backwards into the
drum kit and ended up with a trickle of blood running from his head
down his face and it wasn't until a couple of songs later when Jon
Wurster told him that he had any idea. That's rock and/or roll right
there! So it was a fun show, regardless of "specialness," and a nice
cap on the second night.

Finally,
the 25th anniversary of Merge Records is upon us, and the music
festival that goes with it. I'd been looking forward to this for
months.

I managed to hear about two minutes of William Tyler
before entering Baldwin Auditorium...going to shows solo in fancy seated
venues mean you can find a spot up front even if you arrive late,
because there are always a few single empty seats here and there. All
of the bands were set up at the same time on the giant stage, so
switching from one act to the next took no time at all - I think it
might have been five minutes between the end of Tyler and the start of
Mount Moriah, which is unheard of at a rock show.

I've seen Mount Moriah
numerous times in multiple rock clubs across the Triangle, and it was a
little weird seeing them on this giant auditorium stage in front of an
extremely quiet crowd. The band almost seemed unnerved by how quiet it
was, as they should have been - it was downright eerie, way too many
well-behaved adults in one room. The great thing about these types of
rooms are they sound great, and Baldwin Auditorium was no exception.
Yeah, I might have turned the bass up a little bit in the mix, but
Heather's vocals were fantastic and Jenks' guitar work as good as I've
ever seen it. There were only a few older songs in the set, "Miracle
Temple" and an epic, amazing version of "Plane" being the standouts, and
the rest were new songs for an album on which they are working. If
this was the preview for that new record, count me excited to hear the
final results once Merge releases it.

Lambchop.
To paraphrase what I said elsewhere, to say Lambchop were awesome would
be redundant because there is never a time when Lambchop aren't
awesome; therefore, a better description is to say Lambchop were
Lambchop. This evening they were doing a rare performance of their
classic 2000 album "Nixon" from start to finish, which Merge recently
issued on vinyl for the first time in the US as part of their 25th
anniversary reissue series. If there is ever a perfect location to hear
Lambchop, it's in a deathly silent auditorium where you can hear every
faint guitar pluck and muted horn and piano tinkle...audio-wise I'm hard
pressed to think of ever attending a better sounding show in my life.
"Nixon" made up the entirety of their set, with the band re-taking the
stage after a brief standing ovation to play a one song encore of Curtis
Mayfield's "Give Me Your Love," a glorious end to a musically gorgeous
evening.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

A damn fine night of local music at Café Du Nord. Peggy Honeywell started it off with her unique brand of balladeering. She has a fine voice, reminding me of both Chan Marshall and Gillian Welch without really sounding like either. She has an interesting sound, in that her voice says country while her guitar playing says blues. Either way, I enjoyed it. I just wish she had played her song "Puppy Love" off of her album on Galaxia, it's a great track. Her set was short and to the point, just how I usually like my live music.

The Papercuts were next. This was my second time seeing them in during the month of February. After some talking with Daz, we both thought the best band comparisons we could come up for them would be a combination of The Violent Femmes, For Stars, and The Shins. There are also obvious comparisons to the local group The Ceramic Isles, but since these two bands share members it might be redundant to even go into that one. I thought they sounded swell; I’m enjoying them more and more each time I see them. For their next to the last song, the singer put down his guitar and played the house piano at the back of the stage, which was a nice change. The piano could have been a little louder to match the volume on the keyboards, but it was still nice nonetheless.

The final group was Vetiver. It just came to my attention that the singer/guitarist of Vetiver is from one of my favorite North Carolina bands of all time, The Raymond Brake. I already liked Vetiver, but this just immensely increased how cool I think they are. If you ever have the opportunity to pick any of Raymond Brake’s music, do it - you won’t be disappointed. That said, on the Vetiver tip, they were great as expected - lots of new stuff that I hadn’t heard before (granted, I’ve only seen them once before, but most of the songs from this night was not on their demo that Daz lent me either). Seemed like the strings were playing a more up-front role this time - last time they kinda came across as secondary to the singing and guitar. I’m really looking forward to these cats putting out a proper album, and how.

Man, I really love being surprised at shows. It doesn’t happen all that often anymore, considering the amount of music I’ve listened to up to this point in my life. As you get older, you start hearing a lot of bands doing a lot of the same things. Maybe that’s why the more original stuff hits me as hard as it does, because it stands so out so well from the rest of the rabble.

Vetiver - they blew me away. I had never heard anything by them, heard anything about them...in other words, I didn’t know shit about shit. I would probably throw them under the classification of Americana, but that’s only because I can’t really pigeon-hole their sound. The band has three members - violin dude, cello girl, and guitar playing singer, who was also a guy. The music made me think of some weird mix of Nico and Rufus Wainright, only the voice was a little less mannish than Nico, and not quite as flamboyant and over the top as Rufus. And if you think that’s the dumbest band description you’ve ever heard, I promise I can always go dumber. Anyways, a lot of the guitar playing was finger picked rather than strummed - anytime I hear finger picking, I always think of Crooked Fingers, but playing style is really the extent of that comparison. I was mesmerized for their entire performance, and the only thing that bummed me out was that they didn’t have anything to buy and listen to. Hopefully they are recording now or will be soon, because I’m dying to be able to listen to this group at times other than their live shows.

Let me say from the get-go that Thee More Shallows were damn good too, but I was still reeling from Vetiver and couldn’t quite get into it as much. It was pretty crowded earlier, but now it was a packed house for these guys. I’ve listened to their album some and I dig it. Makes me think of Grandaddy a little bit, but doesn’t sound like them - not keyboard-y enough. Live, they reminded me of a less country version of Lambchop, and maybe a little spookier too. The vocals were mostly spoken rather than sung, and the singer had a box with a pig on it - not a real pig, but some sort of decal if I remember correctly - and this box seemed to make lots of noises or have pedals in it or something, cause he was always messing with it. It should be noted that the singer reminded me of the character "Bug" from the movie "Uncle Buck," not that there is anything wrong with that; and noted even further, that is a highly underrated John Hughes film, John Candy is awesome and dearly missed, and that Mcauly Caulkin kid is good in the movie but looks like a crack addict nowadays. Why do I mention all this? No reason, but I just watched this movie recently, and remembered how much I like it. You should really celebrate John Candy’s entire catalog of films, not many misses in there as far as I’m concerned.

OK, so the bottom line is - 1. Vetiver - amazing. Do what you can to see them.2. Thee More Shallows - really great too. A fine night of music.3. Watch more John Candy movies.

US Maplewith Heavenly States and Black GhostBottom of the Hill5/25/2004Ah, a night of quality rock action at the Bottom of the Hill. It had been quite some time since I last saw US Maple in all of their glorious weirdness, many moons ago at Kimos. Tonight, I would remedy that situation.First up in this trifecta of performers was Black Ghost. Although I know both of the kids that make up this band, I’m not in the business of heaping praise onto anything I don’t feel worthy…if the music didn’t catch my ear or inspire me in any way I could have easily just left them out of the review. Instead, they brought the rock in a much larger way then you might ever expect of a duo – I don’t know if it was because of the band or the soundperson or a little of both, but the size of the sound I was hearing did not match the two small people that populated the stage. Very mathy, heavy, and mostly instrumental (and when there were vocals they were pretty much screamed), this group has improved by leaps and bounds over the last time I saw them, probably six months ago or so. If they keep on this track, can domination of the “noise rock” community be far behind?I wasn’t sure how or why the Heavenly States got on this bill – they didn’t really fit in with the noisy, chaotic sounds that the other two bands made, but rather had a classic pop-punk type of thing going ala Superchunk or the more upbeat Wrens stuff; which I liked pretty well actually, it just seemed to stand out amongst the rest of the line-up is all. I’d heard a few songs off of the band’s website some time back, and most were just okay; the glaring exception being the song “My Friends,” which is one of the best things I heard all of last year. There was a great energy to their live performance, and it seemed like most of the folks there were into what they were doing onstage.Finally, after a bit of a delay, US Maple took the stage. Slowly. It started out with just the guitarist out there playing by himself, and slowly the rest of the members joined him. I’ve head a lot of different descriptions of the music these guys produce, and the truth is there is no single way to describe it; to me, they sound like the musical embodiment of what going crazy would be like. I don’t really know how to explain it; it’s just one of those things you have to see. Therefore it is fitting that the singer, Al Johnson, looks like a man who is verifiably insane. And I don’t mean in that “oh look at the hyper singer jumping around, he’s so crazy” way; rather, he has that look in his eyes that screams dementia. He stalked around on the stage like a caged tiger, ready to strike but never quite going for it; and those actions are fairly analogous to the band’s music – lots of build up and tension, without any resolve. It’s all pretty fantastic really, and some of the most original stuff I’ve ever heard. While these guys certainly aren’t for everyone, and even though I’m not even sure I “get” it, I really like US Maple and hope they come back around again sooner rather than later.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Trans Amwith Minus the Bear, Tussle and Replicator Great American Music Hall 2/26/2003Four bands. That’s about two too many bands on a bill as far as I’m concerned. Even though all of the bands are great, that’s just a lot of standing around in the same spot. And even if you’re one of those crazy dancer kids, it’s still going to wear you out.

I got there before the whole thing started so that I could throw some support the way of Replicator, some local lads who make some bruising music. This was probably the best I’ve seen them play, which is a good thing given the stature of getting to play at the Great American Music Hall with Trans Am. Chris was a machine on the drums, pounding them relentlessly and losing a number of drumsticks in the process. They came across sounding like the bastard stepchild of Gang of Four, Wire, and Big Black, and had a handful of kids in the front flailing around like their ass was on fire. By the end of their set, the place was getting pretty full and people seemed to be digging it.

Tussle was second. This was the only band on the bill that I hadn’t seen before. They were comprised of four dudes – bass, keyboards and electronics, drums, and one guy playing this weird hybrid drum set that was part bottles and jugs and tin tubs and part regular drum kit. They sounded like a dub version of Tortoise to me; some parts were interesting and others were boring, but I liked them more than not. They sound like a bandyou might see in one of the Hacienda scenes from "24 Hour Party People," playing to a bunch of scenester/hipster/raver types. And if you ever needed proof that indie don’t dance, this was it – some of the danciest music I’ve ever heard live, and only a couple of people in the crowd were bobbing along to the music.

The third band was Minus the Bear. Although I like these guys, I didn’t enjoy this show as much as last time I saw them. They seemed out of place in this line up, but I get the feeling that might happen to them a lot - they seem to straddle a lot of different musical styles, music that might not be normally mixed together. If I had to put them in a specific genre, it would be tough – they play an eclectic sort of math-emo-pop. Lots of keyboards, one guitarist who almost never strums his guitar but rather does all kinds of "hammer-ons" on the neck, in a very Van Halen "Eruption" sort of way; the bands they make me think of the most are Jawbox when they are rocking straight forward, and Dismemberment Plan when they’re feeling a little quirky. I enjoyed their show a few months back at Bottom of the Hill quite a bit; I think a big part of enjoying their music is just being in the right mood for it, and unfortunately, the bands that I heard before them kinda threw me off of that track.

Trans Am was the big finale. I saw these guys roughly a zillion times back when I lived in North Carolina, where they played all of the time. I haven’t seen them in a while - the last time was at Bottom of the Hill a couple of years ago with Neil Hamburger and Laddio Bolacko, a really great show. I’ve not been crazy about their output over the last few years, but their first three releases are the proverbial "shit." That said, they’re always great live no matter what songs they’re playing. Their drummer (aside from looking almost identical to one of my good friends) is easily one of the best I have ever seen, and I think this to myself each and every time I see Trans Am perform. On to the music though – I only got to see about six songs before I had to take off to go to another show across town, but it sounded great.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

En
route to go play old man basketball with some friends, I stopped off at
Nice Price to take in some day rock and try not to buy anything for
once. I can't overstate how much I like a daytime or even happy hour
rock show, it is one of the great joys in life. I knew very little
about who was playing and only had a few minutes to stop in, but it was
free and who cares, day rock! I managed to see a short set by a band
called New Boss,
which is apparently an offshoot of the Charlottesville band Invisible
Hand. It was unclear if this is just a side project or if Invisible
Hand is no more...hopefully side piece status, because I dug the Hand.
The basics are: five piece band, female singer, excellent guitar
playing. The guitar work especially reminded me of Pavement, and the
overall vibe of the band was Teenbeat Records circa 1995. But more than
anything, and this didn't hit me until their last song, they reminded
me of Television Personalities. Or rather Television Personalities with
bitchin' guitar. I'll gladly see these guys again, even at night!

I know Marc Maron
is performing bits when he is onstage, he's been doing this comedy
thing for a few decades now after all. But he's just so damn
comfortable up there that it feels more like a conversation (and
sometimes a rant) than it feels like a comic performing a routine.
There were a few noteworthy bits about driving a car in LA turning into a
"hate pod" and how farting never stops being funny, but the best parts
were his ruminating on Jesus / religion / Good Friday (it was
particularly topical given the date of the show) and taking questions
from the audience. One audience member asked him about crossfit which
set him off on a particularly funny rant if I remember correctly. The
man is easily one of the best working comedians out there today, and
I'll never not ever not miss him tell the jokes and the whatnot.

His opener, Ryan Singer, was the exact opposite - his act
was so perfect and well-rehearsed it felt more like a one act play than
it did comedy, not that I didn't laugh a lot. He also opened the last
time Marc came to town, so one would assume they are friends and this is
the usual Maron live show experience. I enjoyed Singer so much I'd
gladly go see him on his on if he ever came back solo, the guy has a
bright future.

I missed Protomartyr
at Hopscotch last year or the year before or whenever it was, but I
remember people that I trust giving them a big thumbs up and that was
enough to get me out of the house and into Slims. The place was packed,
probably sold out but I didn't poll the doorman or anything. As I
hadn't even listened to more than a song or two of their music, I was
forming most of my opinion on the band from this show. You would
definitely never know what you were getting into from just looking at
this pack from Detroit - singer Joe Casey looked like the doppelganger
for Craig Finn of the Hold Steady, the guitarist looked like a refugee
from a frat jam band, and i don't recall the bassist or drummer (insert
rhythm section jokes here), but everyone looked like they were coming
from something different. More importantly though, the music - rad.
Super rad. The overwhelming vibe was a protopunk/postpunk sound along
the lines of the Fall or Pere Ubu depending on the song, with moments of
noise sludge like US Maple and pop punk like Jawbreaker making
occasional appearances. Did I mention how rad they were? So rad.
Radical. Radiating radicality. I can't recommend this band enough.

Saw Whatever Brains
again, they had the middle slot. Shocking, I know. They were rad as
per usual, equal parts weird and rock, but the only thing particularly
noteworthy here is it was their first gig with their new bassist, or at
least the first I had seen and the first for Slims. Maybe because he is
still being indoctrinated into the cult of WB, it was their most
"traditional" set I've seen in quite some time...no long jams, no
keyboard skronk offs, no weird covers. But again, rad nonetheless.

The opener was a band called
Spray Paint from Austin. I had briefly listened to a couple of songs
online and while it didn't wow me, it was interesting enough to see what
they were all about live. It turns out they are one of those three
piece bands that features two guitarists and no bassist as seems to be
popular these days. All three band members sang, and often it was two
or even all three of them singing at once. And while I never really got
this vibe from my brief foray into their recordings, I got a strong
A-Frames vibe this night at Slims. Anything that even slightly reminds
me of A-Frames is a very, very good thing.

As a side note, someone obviously needs to set up a show where Charlotte's Paint Fumes follow Spray Paint.

You know you love a comedian when you're willing to drive all the way to Charlotte to see them. I actually had a chance to see Doug Benson
a couple of days earlier in Raleigh, but Superchunk was playing the
same night and I miss Superchunk for no one. He was performing at his
favorite time, 4:20 in the afternoon, not only because he is a stoner
but mainly because having a comedy show in the afternoon usually insures
the crowd is definitely there to see you, and not just some drunk oafs
who decide it might be fun to go to the comedy club at night and be
annoying loud assholes.

First though - Graham Elwood
opened the show, as he seems to often do with Doug on the road. He is
the Washington Generals to Doug's Harlem Globetrotters, only in this
case I'm betting both are terrible at basketball. He is good at comedy
though - not as good as Doug, but I enjoyed his short set. Outside of
some comical karate talk I don't remember much about it, but I
definitely laughed.

After a few minutes of Graham Doug came out. He read
some tweets and commented on them, did some crowd work, and at the end
of the set he brought Graham back out to play the Leonard Maltin game
with an audience member (who won when Graham couldn't name the movie, if
I remember correctly). In between all of that though, Doug was working
on honing his material for a comedy special he would be recording a few
days later (on 4/20, obviously). Despite having listened to hundreds of
hours of the "Doug Loves Movies" podcast, I've actually not listened to
a ton of his stand-up. He was hilarious. I sometimes try to write
down a few notes on some of the highlights from a comics set, but all I
wrote down after Doug was "carpet and anal sex" - I'm not sure if that
means there were jokes about carpet and jokes about anal sex, or jokes
about the two of them together, but either way I felt the need to write
it down because I must have really had a good laugh over it.

When it was all over we left the club and it was still
light out and that was really weird. Then we went to a Bobcats game to
make the trip to Charlotte complete. The end.

About Me

check out the parent website...
http://www.doginasweater.com/
2008 - current: These reviews are from my time here in the Triangle of NC.
Pre-2008: These reviews were from when I lived in the Bay Area and likely appeared on the website Playing in Fog.